Diamonds aren't (always) a girl's best friend...

[jitterbugdoll]

Thank you, Eve and Lizzie! I like it very much

I'm not mad for or against diamonds, I just I don't know about a colored-stone engagement ring? I've never seen one. Sounds like you'd have to pare certain colors out of your wardrobe to prevent clashing. And I'd need it in yellow gold. That platinum is just too dang fancy for me, ha.

I wear my sapphire ring with everything; it clashing with my outfit never crossed my mind [huh]

I worked in a bridal shop for four years, and saw quite a few engagement rings with colored stones. The whole "diamond engagement ring" tradition was started in the 30s by the mining industry as a way to sell more diamonds. Prior to that point, you would have worn one ring, which would have come in varying forms of ornateness. The concept of the diamond wedding ring owes its start to De Beers, who found a new mine in 1866 and promoted diamonds to the elite as the stone to have.

Check out this reproduction:

And this 1920s ring with four sapphire baguettes:

 

[Viola]

Thank you, Eve and Lizzie! I like it very much



I wear my sapphire ring with everything; it clashing with my outfit never crossed my mind [huh]

I worked in a bridal shop for four years, and saw quite a few engagement rings with colored stones. The whole "diamond engagement ring" tradition was started in the 30s by the mining industry as a way to sell more diamonds. Prior to that point, you would have worn one ring, which would have come in varying forms of ornateness. The concept of the diamond wedding ring owes its start to De Beers, who found a new mine in 1866 and promoted diamonds to the elite as the stone to have.

Check out this reproduction:

And this 1920s ring with four sapphire baguettes:

Maybe I just need to open my mind as to what has "engagement associations" with it because your sapphire and these two lovelies are all so outstandingly beautiful.

 

[DancingSweetie]

Wow, I love the one with the sapphire baguettes.

 

[mysterygal]

I've been having my eye on a couple of pieces of jewlery as of lately and absolutely love white gold with diamonds, I think it looks great together.

 

[Honey Doll]

engagement rings other than diamonds

I read somewhere that pre-diamond engagement ring popularity, sometimes the engagement ring would be done in the groom's birth stone-- I think that's a nice, sweet touch.

I have 3 diamonds-- my engagement ring set in platnium, a bezel set stone on a chain that I got for my first mother's day and my grandma's engagement ring from the 40's.

Jitterbug Doll-- very sweet ring. I have a pair of earrings that are a dead-on match!

Honey Doll.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I never knew about the whole diamond scandals until fairly recently, and it has swayed me somewhat against them. I have one diamond ring with a sort of slightly scandalous history behind it. When my grandfather died, my family discovered he had a whole other life that none of us knew about, including a rented flat in another part of town. And at least one mistress. My mother found a jeweller's repair receipt in the flat and took it back to find a diamond ring he'd obviously been having repaired for said mistress. She kept the ring and had the 5 diamonds reset into platinum, which 10 years later she gave to me for my 21st. It's a very heavy ring with a thick band, but I love it. However the diamonds are very deep set so they don't sparkle as much as they could. I also have another 2 platinum rings (spoilt perhaps!), one of which is an oval pink sapphire in an a-symmetric ring I designed myself, and a square aquamarine in a claw that was reset from a ring my mum had in the 50s. As long as my engagement ring is platinum (if not because I have expensive tastes, platinum is so hard it would damage any gold I might wear next to it) I would be over the moon with any stone. If I could have anything though, it would be alexandrite, which is a lot rarer and often more valuable than diamond. Not to mention unusual and striking.

 

[AllaboutEve]

Hi Fleur, the company I work for recently made a bespoke ring with Alexandrite. It's an incredible stone and the lucky lady who this ring was for had 3 big oval cuts in hers.
They change colour in the light from a beautiful pale lavender to an aqua.
Interestingly speaking of rarity, good Rubies and Emeralds are also rarer than Diamonds, it's the market that is responsible for the high price of Diamonds rather than their scarcity.
Visit your local jeweller and ask them to source you a 1 carat flawless Emerald with good colour and clarity and you're jaw would drop at the price!!!!

I have a "pigeons blood" colour Ruby set in 18 Carat Red Gold as my engagement ring. It's nice to have a bit of colour and sparkle.
I would jump at the chance to own a good piece of Alexandrite too though.... Great Choice!!!!!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Pardon the intrusion again, but I have to concur on Alexandrite. A really nice one is far rarer than a diamond, and far more interesting. The best come from Russia, but there are nice ones out of Brazil, too.

It has a hardness of 8-1/2 on the Mohs scale, so it's hard enough so that it can be worn regularly.

 

[Tomasso]

Can You Say Monopoly? Cartel?

it's the market that is responsible for the high price of Diamonds rather than their scarcity.

From Cecil Rhodes through to Nicky Oppenheimer, DeBeers has controlled the market.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

My mum is lucky enough to have a pair of Alexandrites set in matching rings, one gold with platinum swirls and one platinum with gold swirls. One day, of course they will be mine, but I hope not for a good long while. She also has a fair few diamonds that she's recently had reset. She has always had such wonderful jewellery that I think I have always wanted to have some of my own one day.

I read recently (suddenly can't remember if it's been mentioned on this thread, if it has, sorry!) that a survey had revealed that three out of four women would prefer a plasma TV to a diamond necklace. I know which I'd rather have!

 

[AllaboutEve]

From Cecil Rhodes through to Nicky Oppenheimer, DeBeers has controlled the market.

Quite!...........

 

[CanadaDoll]

Oh Heck!

My computer doesn't want to work with me right now, maybe now it'll work.

 

[CanadaDoll]

Hello All!

While I think diamonds are lovely, they've not only become cliched, but bloody, and we have only perpetuated the bloodshed by buying them. I do know that you can buy bloodless diamonds, at a rather pretty penny from legitimate traders, but most people either don't know, or choose to ignore what's happening for the sake of a better deal.

Diamond rings never used to be 'the thing' for wedding rings, it used to be any sort of beautiful ring with any stone, from emeralds to rubies and on,or sometimes the groom's birthstone.

I like that thought, my boss' sister in-law has a 25 000 dollar diamond wedding ring that she's afraid to wear how nice huh? what a way to say 'I love you', a ring that isn't worn. I'd much rather have a plain band and proclaim to the world how in love I am with my husband than have something I'd have to worry about. I personally like to have the value in my jewelry be sentimental rather than in the stone, those can get lost so easily. Although I must say my Gran and Mama have some fabulous pieces.
I myself like pearls, and ammolite, which is a fossilized stone, we have at my Gallery. I treated myself to a piece for my 21st birthday. Hey if I don't have a man to buy me jewelry I'll just have to do itlol

Anyway, props again for starting this, just because the 'stars' wear diamonds doesn't mean they're guilt free, and nothing should be worth innocent lives.

 

[RaasAlHayya]

I've never really cared much for diamonds. I love many semi-precious stones, and have a good collection I use for making some of my own jewelry. My favorites are lapis lazuli and pearls, but I also love bone, horn, shell, hematite, carnelian, amethyst...I could go on and on.

--Leslie

 

[Miss Sis]

I think diamonds are beautiful, and to me they are still desirable and exclusive as I have none. I also like emeralds, rubies, and amethysts, my birthstone. I have always wanted diamond earrings, big enough to sparkle.

A woman after my own heart in the gem department, Dancing Sweetie. I have been thinking recently to get my first 'grown-up' ring, an amethyst (My birthstone!) but I do feel a bit young yet for a 'proper' gemstone. I love emeralds but they are scarily expensive. I think I love them so much as they really say 'Art Deco' to me.

I don't wear much jewellery of any kind, except earrings, although I do like vintage brooches, and I don't mind if they're made of plastic!

 

[Kim_B]

I haven't read all the replies to this thread, namely because I'm at work and should really being working instead of reading

Diamonds are nice, but every one can wear them - guys some times have larger earrings that I could ever dream of! That's why I like pearls - they are ultra-feminine and always make any outfit look classy and put-together. My dad is a jeweler and for my wedding he made me the most beautiful pearl necklace I have ever seen...I have been itching to wear it again, but I haven't found any place special enough!

The only other gemstone I wear on a regular basis is my garnet (birthstone) ring that hubby gave me for our anniversary...princess cut garnet with three tiny diamonds on either side. Simple and pretty, the way (my) jewelry should be!

 

[Barbigirl]

I love them

all: diamonds, all colored stones, pearls, et al and I won't apologize.

I have a number of diamonds that were given to me as gifts and they hold great sentimental value because they were picked out with me specifically in mind and they are exactly the sort of settings I am crazy about.

I have rubies, aquamarine and pearls, that were all gifts. They just make me feel good when I wear them which is very often.

 

[BettyValentine]

I never liked diamonds, and was quite vocal about it, but that was pretty much just my adolescent knee-jerk contrariness and love of unusual-for-the-sake-of-unusual. I got over it once I started looking more closely at things, and by "things" I mean "diamonds."

My fiance loves them. He used to work in a jewelry shop (shop as in place where things are made, not place where things are sold. Like a wood shop or a metal shop.) and is pretty enamored of all jewelry. He gets fussy at me because he says I should wear more because he can't wear sparkly things and so I should wear enough for both of us so he can look at them all the time. Diamonds are his very favorite because nothing else has the same glitter as a clear stone.

That said, I wouldn't have gotten a diamond if we were getting a ring from scratch. (I didn't want a ring at all, but my mother in law had a tantrum.) Our budget was too small for a diamond of any size. Some of my friends have .25 carat or so diamonds, and in that case you don't see much more than the prongs. I'd have preferred another stone or a plain band. Also I'd not be purchasing a diamond anyway. (That's about one of the most heinous things one can do in my particular circles of associates. Kicking a puppy would probably be more socially acceptable.)

Anyway, my ring is diamonds. I was given my dad's great-aunt's engagement ring, which had been re-set into a pinky ring for her husband after she died. (I heard this story later and it made me feel much better about my family's taste. I had been under the impression that my great-great uncle had just gone out and bought himself a big diamond pinky ring.)
Then my mom gave me some earrings. Her mom had worn them until she upgraded to larger stones, and my mom wore those until she upgraded to larger stones, so the .5s were given to me to stick in the ring too.
I didn't like the 3 round stones by themselves, so we added some baguettes to taper the line. The baguettes are the only non-antique stones, and they're Canadian, so we're safe in that regard. I can't wait for it to be finished. It should be done in a week or so. It's going to be *shiny*.

While we were shopping, though, we saw a *gorgeous* ring at Tiffany. It was an alexandrite the size of my thumbnail with two diamond side stones. When I asked the guy at the counter what it was, he brought it out for me to try on, and then lead me around the store so I could see how it changes in different lights. It was dark purple in the case, and it was blue in the center of the store, and dark green in the window. It was *really* stunning. Then I noticed that the security guard was following us as the salesguy lead us around. Then I noticed the price tag on my finger: $95,000.

BV